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I am pulling into the slow lane here as I deal with issues at home and stressors in my life. I need to deal with things here and so my posts will be slowing down. My mind is muddled and scattered right now and I realize I must deal with situations that have just popped up in my life. Sometimes life throws us all a curve ball, but we all have stuff to deal with in real life. Wisdom comes when we realize it’s time to slow down and time to deal with the problems that come up, right?

I know that this is a strange post, but I want to share with you the reason for my lack of posts going on this week and my slowing down as time goes on here. My stress level is at max, I am dealing with neck-ache headaches all the time and it hasn’t help that I have started stressing more and more lately. I find that I hold my in my neck and shoulders as we deal with multiple situations here at home. Pain already makes it difficult to function, and with spinal stenosis in the neck and other vertebrae and it makes it hard at times to type, much less think, it is worse right now.

I am a wreck at the moment folks, my stress level and emotions running amok.

I am making an effort to write this out so I can share with you some events in life, it’s both therapeutic for me to share and it may help others know that they are not alone.

Let my start off with what all is happening at home here:

As you all may or may not know my Mother lost use of her legs from back surgery a year and a half ago, Dad and Mom have agreed to get home hospice care for Mom now.

My husband had 4 stints put in his heart one year ago and he’s due for his yearly stress test.

We are still dealing with Contractors and Insurance for the hail damage on our home and our detached garage, over 2 months since our claim.

Insurance wouldn’t cover the damage to the siding on the garage, but they did allow for our repainting. So hubby and I, disabled, are dealing with replacing the siding, caulking and painting little by little as we are in such pain it is taking us a long time. And we still have to address the black mold in the garage additions.

Financial situations with being disabled and dealing with medications and doctors expenses.

We still haven’t had the roof repaired as there are concerns with getting it up to code, it seems that the extensions on the detached garage have problems with the way that they were built, years before we bought the house. One side roof has not been slanted correctly and needs special treatment to repair for it to get it up to code. The other side has an extension on it as well and the roof needs some sort of thing called an ice shield over top of that too. I don’t understand all of this construction stuff, but we are dealing with Insurance, Roofing Contractors and local Code Inspectors to get this 2 month plus situation resolved. Once the roof is replaced hubby and I can take care of the black mold inside the extensions.

I’ve been stressing over hubby’s heart since lately he’s been feeling flutters in it and just as I am writing this the Cardiologists office just called and said that he is not approved for the stress test, by the insurance company. *sigh* Here I was stressing about Friday, worried for the worst possible scenario, and we now have it all postponed when we’ve been waiting for this and knowing something is wrong. Now a longer wait to see the Cardiologist is in order and the stress test, which caused a heart attack last year will be later, once our insurance approves it. *sigh*

We have financial concerns here, this is the reason for my having affiliate banners on my blog, in hopes that folks may be interested in ordering from these companies and I may earn some money on the blog to help us with our financial worries here. Some months it costs us $300 to $400 extra dollars for doctors visits and already our medications are putting our credit cards to their limits. Now with our Insurance claim, extra specialists for both hubby and I we are over extending ourselves. As it is one of the medications that helped hubby and I for our chronic pain issues, we cannot afford so we go without. However there are medications that are necessary for my husband’s heart and the stints put in last year.

My Mother (Nancy) at home while I was there helping out. She held the Teddy Bear and I HAD to grab my camera.

My husband and I being disabled do what we can to help me get up to my parents home in the foothills here in Colorado. Gas prices are bad enough, but since I wear out from a long car ride and I can seldom drive more than 20 minutes without severe pain flare, it takes time and energy for me to get up there. I spend about 10 days up there when I go, and I try to do what I can to help out. My parents finally gave in a year and a half after doctors recommended Hospice Care for Mom at home, and this has caused major misunderstandings and great emotions from one of my siblings. It all comes out of love but that sibling is blinded by his misunderstanding the meaning of hospice care, he believes it’s substandard care and end of life care.

I know that most of you don’t know how hyper sensitive I am, but I’m dealing with being scolded, knocked down verbally on the phone and treated like I don’t care about my Mother… all because I tried to calm a sibling down from being upset about Home Hospice Care for Mom, really upset me. This option of Home Hospice Care does not mean we expect Mom to die anytime soon, nor does it mean substandard medical care. Understandably all this does indeed come out of love and concern for Mom. But I wish that it was understood that I didn’t feel that this was news that should have anyone mad at me for not sharing, when my parents shared it with me… I was relieved, knowing some about this care, that my parents finally got this help at home with Mom. Knowing that I am thought of as not caring and that I don’t feel that an emergency is going on really hurts me and of course has added to my stress level.

Anyhow folks, like I said my brain is overwhelmed, muddled and scattered right now, I hope that this post (although venting some) makes sense to you all. I am an emotional wreck at this moment in time and I need to slow down and cope with home life and real life situations right now.

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful readers, for being here for me at times like this! I don’t know if you all realize how very much this means to me that you are so understanding and I appreciate all your wonderful thoughts and prayers heading to me, my husband, my family and my parents.

Update: Yay, I just heard from Dorothy, she saw several of my APB’s out for her!

Hi all, I am striving to reach Dorothy Teel, she won a giveaway but the form that she filled out with the Giveaway had a problem and the sponsor said the choice of her prize was not clear. I will never use the Tomoson pre-made giveaway program again since it didn’t give me Dorothy’s Email address, nor did it give it to the sponsor. *sigh*

Please if you are Dorothy I need to hear from you so your prize can get out to you. I’ve sent you a private message in Facebook about it (from my Mariah Marasch-Lockwood account, for some reason I can’t do this from my Blog Facebook Page). And I sent you also a Friend request in Facebook so as to get your attention & so we could send a message back and forth in private.

If any of you know Dorothy Teel who enters giveaways here, please let her know I am trying to reach her ASAP. The sponsor may just have to pick out a prize for Dorothy and hope she likes it, since part of the form that was unreadable was for the product choice.

If you all could do me a favor and get the word out in social medias that I am trying to reach her, please do so! I don’t like the idea of the sponsor sending things to people that may not be what they wanted or expected for their prize. If you’d be so kind, I’d be so grateful and I could give you a shout out on social medias and the blog! lol I don’t have anything to give, but a big hearty thank you for your help! 🙂

Here is an idea of what I sent out on Facebook at my All Points Bulletin:

Trying to reach Dorothy Teel on FB… are you out there Dorothy? you won that prize with us but the field, where the sponsor asked for your choice was not filled out correctly or garbled in transmission to them. Please Send me a Message ASAP on Mariah Marasch-Lockwood account (where I requested this info in private, as well as to friend so we could fix this order).

Another on just sent out on all social media:

Please RT: Dorothy Teel, I need to reach you please! We had a problem with your prize form please contact me: ow.ly/zcdCp

Howdy all, you’ve probably been wondering what I’ve been up to. Well this past weekend I had a garage sale at my house, two households across the street from me also held their garage sales at the same time. On the last day of the garage sale I was fortunate enough that two sweet ladies joined me in my front yard and sold some of their homemade, hand sewn pillows, while keeping me company. It was a shame that I didn’t have much relief from sitting out there, minding the garage sale, so I didn’t get a chance to visit with my other lovely neighbors that were across the street from me.

I kept myself in the shade, wore my sunscreen, my sun sleeves (from Sunny Sleevez) and a big floppy hat. I was well protected from the sun, but still hauling out (and back in) the items that were being sold at the garage sale did me in terribly, as did just being somewhat exposed to the outdoor heat and some sun. I’ve been fit to be tied… just so very exhausted and in a lot of pain.

I have finally recovered, somewhat, from all of this days later. I thank you all for your patience.

I have to say that one of the very first things that sold were my little hats that I knit years ago… and I’ve had an offer to sell more of them for a bigger price tag to cover the heads of some more kids nearby. So when I manage to get some free time, I will start doing some more of my knitting. I also had many complements on my sign up front, the one I hand painted… one person thought it maybe decoupage, because they couldn’t believe that someone painted it by hand. lol NICE HUH? Loved the complement! So perhaps someday I will be working on my painting once again and finding a way to make some money to help out with the bills at home here. I don’t know where I will find the time, but I will try! Who knows, I may have a way to finally make ends meet when it comes to my blog as well as our specialists and our medications here. 🙂

You cannot see it well in the photo but this set is really ornate, gold like metal paint(?) all over the tea set design. Lovely, I never used it or displayed it… just don’t have room for this set, but not sure of the value (if any). Click to see larger image & feel free to message me if you have an idea of the maker and value. 🙂

I also met some fantastic people, including a man that told me to pull my Japanese Tea Set from the sale, saying that he has collected some like it and they are possibly too valuable to sell at a garage sale. I listened to him and pulled the set and as I gathered up a few more items for the 2nd day of the garage sale I pulled away from selling my little Cat Tea Pot from Japan as well, when I found that the line was discontinued in 1994 (yes I started checking online before putting things up for sale).

My Japanese Cat Teapot White with Blue Flowers and Blue Ribbon around neck. Made in Japan by Otagiri (a line discontinued in 1994). I am also not sure of the value this has, the only cats like this, that I found online were blue background (quite popular) so this one seems rare. ???

I still haven’t found the value of the Japanese Tea Set, nor the Cat Tea Pot, but I am holding onto them for a while just in case. 🙂

My health is doing well here, except for the pain level from the weekend. I am thankful that I had my sun sleeves (from a past review that I’ve done) to help shield me from the sun and keep my arms cool at the same time. One thought on them, if I had the review to do all over again or I went to buy another pair of Sun Sleeves, I would choose a more neutral color… I did feel a bit like an eccentric old lady out there with sleeves that bright on my arms and the big floppy hat. lol But I did do what was best for my health with the Lupus SLE and used them and they did the job! No sunburn folks! Yay!

Another big thank you to Sunny Sleevez for the great product, with my purple ribbon on them (Lupus and Fibromyalgia Awareness Ribbon is Purple).

Some Of My Hubbies Health Issues Revealed:

My husband and I thought he had a heart attack back in, about, 2006… our Dr at the time checked him, called an ambulance and had him stay in the hospital overnight. The next morning before I took him home, they had him do a stress test (prior to his injuring his back) on a treadmill and the test was finished and they acted like it was nothing, sending him home with medicine for heartburn! Yup, true deal and one of the things that had us leave Kaiser Permanente as it was be beginning of our wondering if they were treating us right.

Recently our new Dr, outside of Kaiser, took a very close look at my husbands health history and placed him on aspirin and some medications for his heart health and stated straight out that he had a heart attack back then.

Possible Further Heart Problems Discovered

My husband went in for some epidural shots in his lower back (he is disabled now in Chronic Pain) and the Doctor, that was to do the procedure noticed not only a fast heartbeat but his heart had skipped (what looked like half on the paper read out that I looked at with the Doctor) beats. The Doctor explained to us that we needed to see a Cardiologist and he refused to give him the epidural shots. The Doctor stated that if he got to close to a nerve he was afraid my husband would have a heart attack during the procedure.

Months Of Testing from March Onward

The final test was the clincher… one of the many tests that our Primary Physician ordered showed a problem. The test was a the Chemical Stress Test… it was time to finally see the Cardiologist, who’s office we visited for the Chemical Stress Test (this was 2 weeks ago).

The visit to the Cardiologist:

He revealed that my husband had PVC’s all over the place and it was either time for dangerous medications or time for surgery, angioplasty and a couple of stints, “ASAP.” And to look at the tip of the heart that appears to be dead. OMG Panic Mode here and Major stress hit us at home.

The Surgery For Hubbies Heart

Last week, on Thursday, we had my husband’s surgery and they explored his heart as they were at it. As my husband was going through all the Surgery Preps, they let him know that he not only had a heart attack, back when we were with Kaiser, but he had another one during the stress test. The surgery went well, however they found not the 2 arteries that were 90% blocked but a 3rd as well… so it wasn’t just one or two stints but 4. A nurse at the hospital indicated that we will know if he needs bypass surgery in a while, but we wait until after he looks healed for now and I am sure further tests will be involved.

Yes that Tattooed Man is my dear hubby. Here he is after surgery, He cannot remember this picture or the other one where he modeled for it. Poor baby was talkative but sooooo out of it. My job, keep him still, his back hurt laying still for so long and he kept trying to lift his head, a no no after his type of surgery.

The rest is history, my husband is home safe and sound, he refused to stay in the hospital since our Medicare Advantage through AARP would charge us a lot more than we could afford on $1500 a month that we live on (since we are both on Social Security Disability). My husband is on a lot of restrictions right now as the stints heal into his arteries of his heart, no stress, no exerting himself etc. The time period is up for the lowest amount of lifting, which was no more than 10 pounds, but still he has to be careful.

Stress and The Solution, A Get Away

Hey These two know how to achieve some relaxation! It’s time for hubby and I to De-stress too.

As I am sure you can imagine, at this time, my life is still in crazy mode here. We did, under my husband’s insistence, go fishing on Thursday. He insisted that I was stressing far to much and he knew that my health can be at serious risk with stress and of course my stressing made him stress which is a big no-no.

Check out what we caught, my husband caught one small Rainbow Trout and I caught two nice sized fat Rainbows and 2 German Brown Trouts. One was 16 inches large, we measured it for the picture, however I was holding the tape measure with the hand I have to snap photos with and the tape measure slipped (as did my camera when I tried to get the whole fish in the picture).

Not a fish tale/tail (lol) my husband holding my big catch of the day. He kept saying you have “Bragging Rights” and we had to get a tape measure. It measured 16 inches, however at this angle it looks like 15 1/2 because of my moving the tape measure, the angle and we missed getting the whole fish in the picture as I couldn’t get far enough away. lol Believe it or not, It was a great catch and wonderful flavor for our healthy, heart smart meal. 🙂

We had a wonderful time fishing up at George Town Lake here in Colorado, here are the Road trip pictures and the picture of the scenery that I took while I was fishing. 🙂

Beautiful Mountain Scenery on the Way to George Town Lake, Colorado. The Brown Sign in the distance says, “Wildlife Viewing Bighorn Sheep” (I cannot read the exit number… this was on I-70.Yay, almost at George Town Lake, our exit 228Yay, here we are pulling up to the lake! Nice George Town Lake isn’t too far from home in Westminster, Colorado.As I sat down to fish, I first found I had a welcoming by some mean Red Ants. I did move my chair a little further over and after tucking my pants into my socks (with my big floppy hat tied on because of the wind, I sure looked like a Dork!) I looked up and saw this scenery. WOW! Much needed chance to relax and not worry about a thing was finally underway! What a Day!

I am trying to come back, although my life is still crazy hectic, my reviews will possibly be a bit brief for me (maybe a welcome site for some of my readers, since I do tend to be wordy), but I will try to do them justice.

Thank you for your patience as I try the balancing act of health issues, family and the blog.

Yup, it’s me, I do need a haircut though! lolYes a former Cosmetologist that is waiting to save up for a haircut for the first time in a few years by someone else (other than me).

Is it me, or is the adage of “Bad Things Come in Threes” really true? What about you, do you believe this is the truth in life?

Every time something bad would happen, I used to say that I am “waiting for the other shoe to drop”. However since I married that handsome Marine husband of mine, I’ve learned about the adage “Bad Things Come in Threes,” that old saying does appear to be true (for us). I no longer feel I can say that I am waiting for the other shoe to drop (although I think it, still)… unless someone happened to have 3 feet! lol

Since learning my husband’s adage and 21 years of marriage, all I can do is start counting when bad things happen. We’ve had such a week and a half here…

The beginning of Bad things Come in Threes

Nothing In Life Is Free

Yes another adage, Nothing In Life Is Free and so it is with the new vehicle we received.

This all started out with the new vehicle that my parents gave me, it wouldn’t pass emissions so we took it to the shop. Seems that some of the hoses were disconnected, one was completely plugged and then re-attached and the hose (or hoses) that were connected were connected in the wrong place (or places). This is why the emissions wouldn’t work, problems solved, right? NO! Now that things were doing what they should they noted that the gas was squirting out and onto hot surfaces… my parents were and we were just plain lucky that we didn’t have a fire or explosion! Now our bill is up to over $800 and with the two of us on Social Security Disability, we live paycheck to paycheck and so the credit card not only gets the charges for our medications but now we will be maxing it out with our newest expense and here we were planning on using the money left on the credit card to put towards a new hot water heater, it’s had a slow drip for a while and you have to run hot water (that is temped at best) for quite a while so the hot water heater will kick in & heat the water to a good temp for bathing, showers and washing dishes. Ah well such is life. We wait on the news of the vehicle still as they look into it further after this long weekend… we hope it’s not a cracked intake manifold or it will be much more… then we don’t know what we will do!

My Laptop “Bad Things Number Two”

Then of course I’ve been limping along with this laptop of mine and the problem with the noisy fan, that is going out (last years record heat in an old house without cooling of any kind wore it out I fear). I did put in an order for the part that I need and expect a call with the thumbs up on their getting it into the warehouse at Dell in a few days. At that time is when we pay for it and finally fix the laptop… I paced around the house as my husband took apart my laptop, keyboard and the hard drive were just some of the parts that had to be removed. I was so worried something would go wrong, but we found out which part we needed to replace on it and then he put it all back together and it’s working. Now we just wait for the part, so still limping along for the time being.

Along Comes Bad Thing Number Three

And of course, you all may have noticed the blog down for a while, then it returned only to disappear again. That was first some place attacking my site with too many requests to visit it or something… they said I was getting over 74,000 hits an hour! So it was a denial of service attack that has ended now.

Then the second time it went down we had a data base error of some sort and they tried to tell me at my host that I would have to start the Blog once again by scratch and rebuild everything from backup from almost a week ago! ARGH!!! GASP!!! Well, discussing this with my husband, during our multiple calls to our Hosting Site (were we pay for our blog to be on their servers), and we decided that it wouldn’t do any hard to go and reinstall WordPress on the blog and sure enough we fixed the problem. WHEW!!!!

Fixing The Bad Things

Well, one problem solved out of 3, and 2 are going to be fixed soon. Lucky for me my laptop part is only $4.99 through Dell and all the other merchants online that sold Dell parts have them for $24 to 40-some-odd dollars. So I am so glad that we found the problem and that I talked to the most helpful person in online chat through Dell’s Sales area… this is a really good thing! And though my laptop is pretty old, for a bloggers laptop which only lasts a lot of bloggers a year or two… we will be repairing the old thing and at a price that is very affordable for two people living on Social Security.

Time For Our Luck To Change

We have high hopes as a local man contacted us on the Old Jeep Cherokee and he has offered to buy us a new hot water heater, install it and take the old one away in exchange for the Jeep. Now he has yet to see the Jeep and approve the barter… but we will possibly be getting our Hot Water Heater taken care of after all! Oh how we hope and pray that the Jeep will be what he wants and needs when he sees it, hey it is a faithful vehicle after all.

This is just a sample of the same sort of luck we have at our home, and we’ve found that bad things come in threes for us.

Something that I never heard of before, but the match breaking would be a kinder gentler sort of bad luck, so why not? lol

While searching the internet, I found what is possibly an old wives tale, a superstition of sorts and perhaps my superstitious husband will take note and do this… hey, it maybe worth a try. lol Break a match, or two after bad things happen, each match break counts as a bad thing. lol

What about you? Do you have a tale to tell?

I’d love to hear what you think, do you wait for the other shoe to drop or do you believe that bad things come in threes? Tell me about it… hey you know misery loves company! 😛